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Buwan: Oktubre 2016

When you got home and open the television, what is the first thing that will greet you? News about the drug involvement of Sen. De Lima, harsh and insulting words of Pres. Duterte, another man have killed because of drugs, another drug laboratory has been being raid, or another kid was being raped by a drug addict. As I watch those kind of news, it made me think, why is it all involved by drugs? Nothing is new. The same story again and again. But what is more alarming than this? I know these passed few months, after Pres. Duterte was being inaugurated as our president, his number one platform about “war against drugs” was started. Extra-judicial killings rose. A lot of people were alarmed by this brutal news. Numbers of killed accused drug addicts, pushers, etc. inflated. I don’t want to be pretentious in this essay, that I know a lot about extra-judicial killings or the law about it. However, 3 things popped out on my head when I heard this news for the first time.

THE GOOD: I know that every time we heard another extra-judicial killing on the news, we feel pity for the victim. We pity them because the cops shot them and didn’t give them another chance to change. Pity them because they also have family like us, and most all, they’re all humans too. It’s really sad to watch the family of the victims crying because their love ones were taken away from them in an inhumane way. They look like the protagonist in a novel. But the thing is, does that pity that we felt towards the victim really worth it or in other words, do they deserve it?

THE BAD: I guess you already have an idea who’s the bad in this story like issue. The cops, because they were the one who perform the drug raid. A lot of people tend to get mad or judge them. They think that the cops did that on purpose. That Pres. Duterte commands them to kill all these drug-related people. Most of us don’t believe them that they did that to protect themselves. Are they saying the truth? Or they just do their jobs? We know that their number one job is to protect us to those kinds of criminals.

And lastly, THE DIRTY: Admit that that all of us have these dirty judgments in our mind. That even though we try to keep it ourselves, it will still spill out eventually. Opinions, perspectives, false judgments, we all have these. Especially in the generation we have today, we can say or post anything in just one click. It’s either we can worsen the situation or we just want to tell our bottled thoughts to everyone. I have no idea why these 3 things come in to my mind. I admit to myself that I’m not a kind of person that is easily alarmed by news, but this one really caught my attention.

I remembered what my professor discussed in Clinical Psychology, he told us about the effects of drugs to our body. It also involves 3 things. DEPRESSION, ANXIETY,and PARANOIA. Drugs are also known as downers. People who are using it will become more depressed. It will bury them more. They thought that drugs can free them from all of their problems but it’s not. Then once that person is already depressed, he/she will become more anxious and paranoid with their surroundings. They always feel that someone wants to kill them. From that explanation, extra-judicial killings make sense to me. If a drug addict is caught by cops, their initial reaction will be aggression. They will fight back. So we can’t blame the cops if they shoot the accused person. Like what I have said, they just do their job. Yes, the due process was being bypassed in this case, but think about it, what if you’re in their situation? I know that you will do something to protect yourself and the people around the area. My professor told us that once a drug addict will always be a drug addict. Yes, there are rehabilitations that could give them treatment and medications. But relapses are possible in this case. Treating people who are substance abused is a lifelong process. It requires a lot of support and guidance from the people around them.

Pres. Duterte was right, our country will not be cleaned if we will not uproot the main cause of our country’s burden. I’m not saying that I am in favor of extra-judicial killings, nor being biased with anyone. What I want to say is that sometimes we have to look from the other side issue, where most people don’t usually see.